Character Education in Central Asia

In 1997 the capital of Kazakhstan was moved from Almaty to Astana, a city in the central region of the country. Previously this was a place best known as the destination of many Soviet pioneers who migrated there to cultivate the land as part of Nikita Khrushchev’s new agricultural policy in the post-Stalin era. For most of its young history it was known as Zelenograd (“Green City” in Russian) until 1993 when it was changed to Akhmala (“Black Earth” in Kazakh) and finally to Astana (“Capital” in Kazakh) in 1997.

Since 1997, the population of the city has more than doubled to more than one million inhabitants. For the schools, this means that most must have two or even three sessions a day, until new schools can be built. A visit to the city reveals a tremendous amount of new construction, including the creation of a “New Astana” on the steppe outside of the present city complete with a new presidential palace, parliament, many ministry buildings, business center and apartment buildings for government workers. The project reminds one of the building of Washington, D.C., or of Peter the Great’s building of St. Petersburg in the hostile marshes of northern Russia as that country’s new capital. Financed by the new oil finds from the Caspian Sea, the building of the new capital reflects the grand vision of President Norsultan Nazarbayaev of a new independent Kazakhstan that wants to play a greater role on the world stage.

It is here that character educators from the International Educational Foundation have been developing its work in Astana since last year when we began to have training seminars for teachers through Svetlana Povekvechnova, vice-director of the Institute for Improving Teachers’ Skills. After attending IEF’s Model Schools Conference last year, she and the director of School 36, Vadim Motorin, decided they would work to make this school live up to the name of a model school. This past spring the school bought a set of IEF’s educational materials—the textbooks, teacher manuals and parent handbooks of the My World & I curriculum—for each one of its 70 teachers and a training workshop was held for the entire school. Since then this school has tried to include these materials in its overall curriculum as well as introducing its interactive methodology into all the classrooms. The school caught the eye of the city department of education last June when, in its end of the year report, it showed vast improvement in student academic performance as well as a reduction in behavioral problems, which it openly attributed to the My World & I program.

The occasion of our most recent visit to Astana, November 28-30, was the holding of the “Capital City Forum of Student Presidents of Schools”, an initiative of School 36 to which were invited student presidents, teachers and other students of Astana’s 45 public schools plus surrounding village schools. The event was opened by the vice-director of the city department of education, who enthusiastically spoke about the importance of cultivating the heart and spirit of a person as well as the intellect. Following this were several performances by students of School 36 depicting life at school and then reports by several student presidents about their activities, including work with orphanages, old age homes, cleaning the environment, etc. In the afternoon everyone broke up into different groups in which students and teachers from School 36 conducted exercises and games from My World & I. In the middle of the day Robert Beebe, IEF vice-president for curriculum development, gave a presentation on “Universal Principles & Life Goals”, focusing his attention on the student presidents and talking about true leadership, using Father’s teaching on the Three Subjects Thought.

The entire event was an example of exemplary leadership on the part of an ordinary school which became inspired by the IEF vision and material. Even representatives of the so-called elite schools attended the program and had to humble themselves in front of the sincere investment made by School 36. The program also received excellent coverage on the TV evening news by the main government channel.

The day before this event we had a meeting with the director of the city department of education Asar Rakhimzhanova. At this meeting we discussed the following items:

1. having a Teacher Training Workshop (TTW) for all the city schools in the coming year to introduce the My World & I program;
2. department support for the publication of the My World & I textbooks in Kazakh language;
3. introducing a course in moral education for teachers at the Institute for Improving Teachers’ Skills.

Mr. Rakhimzhanova approved each of these proposals, the details to be worked out with his staff. In meeting with the vice-director later, she expressed great interest in the Kazakh book, saying it was very necessary for schools. She then took it upon herself to organize a previously unplanned short program on Sunday for all the school directors in the city. With a 100% turnout Robert Beebe gave a presentation on “The Need to Educate for Character” and introduced the IEF materials. Their response was quite enthusiastic, shown by their buying up all the books that had been brought. They all indicated their interest in sending their teachers to the TTW being planned for next year, probably in March. At the end of this program, the vice-director of the city department of education, who acted as emcee, presented IEF with a certificate in appreciation of its work in the field of character education, signed by Mr. Rakhimzhanova.

Finally, at a banquet held at School 36 with all its teachers and administrative staff present, Robert Beebe presented the school director, Vadim Motorin, with a certificate honoring his school as an IEF Model School. He received the certificate on behalf of the school with deep pride and joy, later showing it off to everyone present. He said it would occupy a prominent place in the school’s entrance.

The activities in Astana can serve as a model for what can happen when just one school sincerely applies the My World & I curriculum, not just for its own sake, but as a school practices Father’s teaching of “living for the sake of others”. Even though the physical conditions at the school are not so great, the spirit there is very high. The teachers, staff and students are really like a family working together for a common higher purpose.